Leadership

I first met Yitz in the Spring of 2004, my final semester at Bryn Mawr College, where I was a preschool aide where his daughter was a student!  It was then that the seeds of our collaboration were planted. My post college years took me down to the DC area, over the ocean to study in Jerusalem, and finally back to the Philly area, with the common thread of music, teaching and Jewish song leading guiding my adventures.  10 years later Yitz and I have reconnected, as I am finishing my Music Education degree at Temple University.  I am honored to be working with him to develop community prayer opportunities filled with music, reflection, and thought-provoking conversation. I look forward to interacting with Derech HaLev at bi-monthly Shabbat evening and morning services, High Holydays, and many other celebrations throughout the Jewish year.

I attended RRC (the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College), graduated in 2000, and have been happy as a rabbi, working with young families ever since.  After three years as rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, in Chico, CA, I helped create the Narberth Havurah.  After nearly 10 years with The Havurah, the time came to re-create.  Derech HaLev, A Path with Heart, is already a powerful [while small] comminty, one that insists on being experimental, with for example, its two locations!  We are now in our 3rd year, in 2016/17 — from our inception we’ve refused to be limited by Judaism, rather, we are inspired by it.  I have had an interest in being this way since before rabbinical school.  My training included a full year at yeshiva in Jerusalem, where i was wonderfully absorbed into our traditions, yet saw aspects I knew i would need to … reconstruct.  I happily adore old old scriptural passages, and also new-fangled feminist ones.  Within HaLev our interests come from all corners, from other religions, from contemporary psychology, sociology, medicine… and we bring it all to our community, our practice, and our Judaism.  Buddhist animal stories, jatakas, and Carl Jung.  Contemporary movies, all kinds of literature.  What other way is there to live an inclusive life and be part of a Jewish community that addresses both the interests and needs of our contemporary lives?